


White Knight

by oxnate



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once and Future King Series - T. H. White
Genre: Complete, Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 11:11:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8842417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxnate/pseuds/oxnate
Summary: Xander falls through a portal.





	1. The Once and Future King

**Author's Note:**

> by Oxnate
> 
> Disclaimer. Do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the King Arthur mythos.
> 
> Challenge response: http://www.tthfanfic.org/Challenge-8481
> 
> Summary: Xander falls through a portal.

A one-eyed man flew backwards through a portal and a hulking great demon followed him through. Xander Harris tumbled as he hit the ground, rolling out his momentum and somehow keeping a hand on his battle-ax. He used the last of his momentum to push himself back onto his feet, facing the demon. Out of the corner of his eye, Xander saw people running away and calling out – hopefully for guards. That was a good sign. He wasn't in a hell dimension if people were in charge and if the guards got here to help him before the portal clo- _Never mind_. The portal behind the demon just closed. Which meant all sorts of fun adventures trying to get himself sent home, he knew. But first, he had to survive the demon which was again charging at him.

Xander wound up and swung hard even as he dove out of the way. The ax hit and Xander pulled back, only to have the handle ripped out of his hands when the ax-head stuck in the demon as it charged past.

Great. Now he was unarmed and facing an eight foot tall demon.

A warning shout came from behind him and Xander only just jumped out of the way as an honest to goodness armored knight charged the demon with a spear. The knight charged in and veered off at the last second as he extended his spear arm to jab the demon without the demon being able to return the favor.

This bought Xander just a little bit of time to take in his surroundings. If he was on Earth, he had surely traveled back in time because he was standing next to a big honking castle. They (‘they’ being him, the demon, and the knight) were all in some sort of courtyard between the castle and stone walls further along.

Xander also took a half a second to observe his knightly rescuer as he came around for another pass. The man wasn't wearing plate armor at all, simply a long chainmail shirt (or ‘just maile' as Giles insisted on calling it) and a helmet. 

Xander was torn from his observations yet again as a crowd of about 20 more men joined the fray. All of these men were on foot and all had a spear and a shield. Xander wasn't sure what good the shield would do against the demon, but more power to them there. The other thing he noticed was that only two of the new men had even chainmail on – most had a gambeson but some were just wearing a shirt. They were going to get killed. Not that Xander was wearing any armor, but that was completely beside the point. Xander cast about for another weapon – anything that would get him back into the fight. A glint of metal over by the wall caught his eye and he sprinted for it. There was a sword there, covered in vines but looking none the worse for wear. Xander pulled it out and charged back into the fray.

He watched as a backhanded swipe from the demon's giant hand sent many men sprawling, many times into each other. The results from one such sprawl were just too good for Xander to pass up. One man was on his hands and knees trying to catch the breath that had been knocked out of him while his buddy was in front of him, guarding him fiercely. Xander charged them. He jumped, pushed off the back of the man on the ground, then used the other man's shoulder to propel his final leap. The demon was clearly not used to fighting people higher than him. It took him time to get his arms up but it was too late. Xander passed the demon's head and, with a twisting motion, pulled his new sword right through the demon's neck, beheading him.

There was near silence for several seconds while the demon's heart continued to beat and spray dark blue blood up and out of the body like a sticky fountain until finally the giant body lost its battle with gravity and crashed hard to the ground.

Much rejoicing was heard after that. Xander could only laugh that it was now over. The laughter wasn't so much that anything was funny – it was more cathartic and slightly hysterical, in an 'oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-I-survived-again' kind of way. As he was finishing laughing, the mounted knight rode over, dismounted, and took off his helmet to greet Xander. He spoke and the tone sounded welcoming. But all Xander heard was a bunch of guttural gibberish.

“Uhh... could you run that by me again? A little slower this time?”

The sounds were repeated, and more sounds added, probably faster instead of slower until Xander caught a few sounds he recognized. It wasn't English. It sounded a lot like Gothic German. Which was fortunate for Xander in that after the Hansel and Gretel demon, Xander had actually studied Gothic German. What was unfortunate was that that was over five years since he had last studied/spoken that language. He was a lot more fluent in about a dozen African languages (along with French which was used in a lot of countries there) at the moment but knowing _something_ was a lot better than starting from scratch. He tried saying something to the effect of “I am a traveler.”

The knight frowned and thought for a minute, taking in Xander's (probably strange) attire. He said the word “traveler” back but pronounced slightly differently. Xander nodded, hoping he hadn't just admitted to being a demon or a witch. By this time the villagers were starting to come out of hiding. The knight made a speech which Xander caught less than half the words of, but it seemed complimentary of him so he just smiled and waved at the nice people who weren't about to burn him at the stake.

Then he heard some words he hadn't been expecting. “Hip, hip,” from the knight followed by “Huzar!” from the people. And a second time. The third time, Xander decided to join in. He raised his new sword high over his head and shouted “Huzar!” with everyone else. 

Dead silence.

Mr. Knight pointed at the sword and finally stammered out something like, “Rock sword.”

“No. It's metal. I found it over there,” Xander pointed.

Xander found himself being nearly carried over to where he found the sword. One of the soldiers carefully cleaned the blade while they walked.

When they got there, the vines were pulled away and Xander found himself looking at an anvil embedded in rock with a sword shaped hole where the sword had been a few minutes ago.

Mr. Knight pointed and said, “Put.”

Xander put the sword back where he found it. That was fine by him. He hadn't been planning on keeping it anyway and apparently he’d committed some sort of faux pas by using their ceremonial sword in battle. But no one looked angry so he turned to leave. He wanted to get his ax back and had to see about finding his way back home but some of the soldiers stopped him. Xander was made to watch as the knight walked up and tried to pull the sword back out.

It wouldn't budge. 

Xander was getting a bad feeling about this. Like he'd seen this scene in an old Disney movie many years ago. The hairs on the back of his neck started to prickle. 

Mr. Knight backed away and pointed to the sword saying, “Pull.”

Xander walked up to the anvil and saw there was an inscription. Luckily, his written Old German was a lot better than his spoken. The (translated and paraphrased) inscription read thus: 'Whoever pulls this sword from this stone and anvil is rightfully born King of all Angleland.' It took Xander only a few seconds to translate Angleland (home of the Angles) to a more familiar name; England.

He could see now why this hadn't occurred to him before. The sword looked nothing like the medieval sword he'd been expecting and instead looked like your typical viking sword. The hand guard was rounded instead of going out in two directions like a cross-guard on what he thought of as 'typical' swords.

“Oh boy,” Xander cringed as he reached forward and easily pulled the sword out once again. 

Everyone fell to one knee at that. Mr. Knight was the first to look up. “Name?” he asked.

Xander sighed. He knew what he had to say. “Arthur.”

Mr. Knight said something else and everyone repeated it back again. Xander didn't have to know the words to know the translation. “All hail King Arthur!”


	2. Back to the Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you to the reviewers of the first part of this for inspiring this epilogue. 
> 
> A/N2: If what I’ve written doesn’t agree with what you think you know about King Arthur, it’s because I’m using a different version of the legends.

Epilogue: Back to the Future

“I think I’ve overstayed my welcome,” Xander said while lying on his back. The stab wound in his side may have had something to do with those thoughts.

“What makes you say that, my Lord?” Morgan asked as she finished tying off the binding on his wound. The injury was deep but she had confidence that it would not fester thanks to the “hygienic” practices Xander had introduced and insisted upon in his armies. He would not require any of her healing magics for this wound.

“Morgan, we’re alone.”

“So we are. Tell me what you mean then, Xander.” She used his real name like he requested she do when they were alone as she sat back on a lounge.

“Fighting against invaders, I’m good at,” Xander said. Morgan nodded. As King Arthur, Xander had stopped the Saxon advances and even invaded Gaul to force a peace treaty to prevent future invasions. Though for whatever reason he had refused to expel the Saxon settlers who lived on lands once owned by Angles so long as they paid their taxes to him.

“But I’m just no good for a civil war. I can’t fight my friends.” He put a hand over the wound at his side, received because he had hesitated to kill a former knight of his.

“And what do you wish to do?” she only just barely left off the ‘my Lord.’ What other nobles insisted upon, Xander found annoying. 

“I wish I could travel through time and go back to my friends in the future again.”

“Well, nothing could be easier!” Morgan said.

“Time travel? You can travel through time?”

Morgan held up a finger for a moment then let it drop. “There. We’ve just traveled 5 seconds into the future. Traveling through time is easy. Traveling out of time is much harder.”

Xander laughed at the witch’s joke. “Yes, but I want to survive my travels and see my friends again.”

“And you truly fight monsters in that time? In the future?”

Xander nodded.

Morgan sighed. “We will miss you greatly here and now, but perhaps their need of you is greater than ours. Go and name your successor. We will travel away from here to Avalon where my sisters and I will put you in an enchanted sleep not to age or wake until the time is right for your return. To you, it will seem as if you traveled back to the future.”

Xander smiled at Morgan’s unconscious pop-culture reference.

* * *

A still wounded King Arthur made his announcement that he was leaving but would return to England in the future. Many in the crowd likely thought he was dying and just didn’t want them to see his dead body though none could probably guess the actual truth.

Arrangements made, Arthur and Morgan set sail down the river. Avalon could only be accessed by river, the secret was it didn’t matter which river – as long as it could float a boat and you knew the spell, you could get to the Island of Apples. Once they were clear of onlookers, Morgan cast the spell to return her home. As they stepped out of the boat, Xander set about stuffing himself with the delicious fruits while Morgan went to collect her eight sisters.

* * *

“Hi!”

“Hi.” A coughing fit kept him from saying more.

“Drink,” the girl said, handing him a plastic cup with a straw.

Throat wetted, he tried again. “What year is it and why am I naked?”

“2006.”

2006\. Well, close enough. He had only missed a year or so. “And my clothes?”

“If you ever had any, they rotted away long before I was born,” the girl said. “Besides, it made the sex easier to not have to undress you each time.”

Xander looked around at the nine beautiful women surrounding him. “Sex?”

“Do you mind that we used you while you were sleeping?”

“Only that I missed it.”

The girls all brightened at that. “That can be fixed,” another girl said.

* * *

Sometime during the month-long orgy that followed, Xander did find a few chances to eat, drink, and use the toilet. Every time the thought that he should be more tired and out of shape after 1500 years of sleep, another girl started in on him making him forget whatever he had just been worried about.

* * *

“We do have motives for asking your group here today other than thanking you for saving the world,” The Queen said once the tea service had been removed and the servants excused.

The girls, especially Buffy, had strict instructions not to speak, so Giles answered. “Thank you, Ma’am. We had reasoned there might be.” He had already called her ‘Your Majesty’ once and etiquette dictated that he could refer to her as Ma’am after that.

“You might be familiar with the Arthurian legends?” She asked.

“That King Arthur sleeps on the island of Avalon and will return to defend England in her darkest hour?”

“Yes, that one. It seems it was partially true at least. He has awoken and presented Us with proof of His Royal lineage.”

All the visitors tensed at this. The words ‘England’s darkest hour’ did not mean sunshine and roses for them.

The Queen continued, “He has assured Us that He said no such thing as returning when there was trouble and that it was simply his time to wake again. He gave Us a letter addressed to your group. I shall let my grandson, Prince Harry, read the letter for you as the writing style is...” she turned to The Prince.

“A bit informal,” Prince Harry finished.

“Dear Willow, Dawn, Buffy, Faith, Giles and the rest of the crew. I have arrived safely somewhere around the year 550 or so. First, let me assure you that I am alive and well. I've been living happily these past ten years in the 6th century AD. The portal that I fell through caused a gigawatt overload which scrambled the time circuits, activated the flux capacitor, and sent me back to 550 AD along with a really big demon which we killed on this side of the time stream. The overload shorted out the time circuits and destroyed the flying circuits. Unfortunately, the car will never fly again.

“Do not — I repeat — do not attempt to come back here to get me. I am perfectly happy living in the fresh air and wide-open spaces. Also, I’ve already traveled back to your time and if you go back, you’ll either have a hard time finding me or cause a paradox, thereby destroying the universe. Yours.”

A hidden door opened and Xander emerged. “There are some who call me...” 

“Xander!”

“No, that’s not it. Quiet. You’re ruining the punch- oof.” The last part was interrupted by Willow flinging herself on him at full speed. “A witch! And she definitely weighs less than a duck,” he said as he picked her up, hugging her tightly.

“That’s a fair cop,” Prince Harry added with a smile.

Xander let Willow drop to the floor so he could look at her and so she could wipe her tears that had made a mess of her rarely worn makeup which gave Buffy the opportunity she was looking for to tackle him instead. When he noticed that she was also crying, he just had to add, “Please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let's not bicker and argue over who killed who.”

Both girls gave choking half sobs/half laughs. Once Giles had greeted him and everyone sat down again, The Queen spoke. “Our friends, may We reintroduce you to Xander Harris, sometimes called Arthur, King of the Britons.”

Dead silence.

Then Giles slid off of his chair, landing on the floor.

“I thought about riding in with coconuts but apparently that’s not dignified enough for former monarchs,” said Xander.

The Queen said something under Her breath that might have been ‘certainly not’. Aloud, She called for ‘the relics.’ A servant wheeled in a glass display case and left.

“Is that...?” Buffy trailed off.

“Excalibur and my battle crown. Unfortunately I wasn’t traveling with the crown jewels of the time or the sword from the stone so those are likely lost. Also the sword’s tale has grown in the years if the tales are the same as when I left. I commissioned the sword from a female blacksmith. It’s not magical and no watery tart ever threw it at me. I also had a spear named Rhongomyniad, which literally means ‘Slayer’s Spear’. We just called it Ron though.”

“Xander! You have two eyes!” Willow realized.

“Yeah. Morgan healed me not long after I arrived.”

“Morgan le Fay?” Giles asked worriedly, having found his seat again.

Xander’s face darkened. “I read the summaries of some of the King Arthur stories. Morgan was a good witch,” he nodded to Willow, “a healer, and a friend throughout my reign. _Not_ my half sister and mother of my bastard child.”

Giles coloured a bit at being told off though if he remembered correctly, it was only in the later, French, stories where Morgan was a villainess.

“Speaking of bastard children,” Prince Philip spoke up. “The results are back from your blood tests.”

“Did Xander get some horrible disease in the past?” Buffy asked.

Prince Philip chuckled. “No, my dear. Nothing like that. The National Health Service has been doing voluntary genetic testing on citizens who request it to screen for inherited genetic disorders, basically carriers for genetic diseases who don’t exhibit any symptoms. Along with this, we have built a database to see where people share ancestors.”

“Xander! You didn’t!” Buffy cried, shocked.

“What? You expected me to live like a monk for ten years? I took good care of any women who I impregnated. Anyway, what’s the damage, sir?”

“The _damage_ is you are a direct ancestor to 90 percent of Wales, 65 percent of England, 24 percent of Scotland, and a little under 10 percent of Ireland.”

This time, it was Willow who fell as she tried to sit down and missed.


End file.
